Crystal Lagoons® public access lagoons, PAL, projects have been growing in strength since 2017. They now account for 80% of the company’s activity, surpassing private real estate initiatives.

According to information from the Chilean newspaper, El Mercurio, the company founded by biochemist, Fernando Fischmann, has closed a major contract for PAL developments. By partnering with important Central American investment companies, it has announced the construction of 18 projects in eight countries throughout the region.

It is a large-scale operation within the entertainment industry, which projects annual sales of approximately US $360 million once all PALs are operational. The initiative will span eight countries: El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Belize, Guatemala and Costa Rica. The latter two nations will account for seven projects. The construction of the lagoons, to which the general public will have access via ticketed entry, will begin in the coming months in the capitals and most populated cities of those countries. It is estimated that the attendance to these complexes will exceed 18 million people annually. The development of these PALs will be carried out by Blue Water Ventures, a company specifically created for that purpose.

“They provide capital and development, and Crystal Lagoons the know-how, technology and patented concept,” says Cristián Lehuedé, Executive Director of Crystal Lagoons. Lehuedé admits that this is the company’s largest PAL development contract, although he specified “we have several others in the pipeline for even larger ones, which we hope to make public by the end of the year.” Due to confidentiality agreements, Crystal Lagoons did not reveal the identity of the partners in these projects, although Lehuedé hints that among them are some of the families pertaining to Central America’s top 10 richest families, according to Forbes. Each development considers a total investment of US $10 million, of which US $2.5 million correspond to the lagoon.

What are PALs?
Cristián Lehuedé explains that PALs are highly regarded due to the capacity they have to regenerate underutilized areas, shopping malls, and since they can intensify the use of public parks, unoccupied spaces in the center of racetracks or golf courses, zoos, and racetracks, to name a few. He adds that these lagoons are designed to include other amenities such as restaurants, beach clubs, water sports, retail stores, amphitheaters as well as recreational and cultural activities, such as concerts, shows and cinemas. Blue Water Ventures’ partner, Cristián Roberts, says that PALs will improve the quality of life in Central American cities.

This week Blue Tree opens in Phuket, Thailand’s first PAL. Cristián Lehuedé explains that before the vast majority of the company’s projects were mixed use, that is to say “private residential amenities that have a designated public access area to the lagoon.” Now, however, the tendency is for developments to solely offer public access. In the case of Central America, Crystal Lagoons will receive a percentage of tickets (associated to sales and events) of each development.

Crystal Lagoons is an international innovation company, founded by scientist Fernando Fischmann, which has developed a patent-protected technology that allows the construction and maintenance of unlimited-size clear water lagoons at very low costs.